In the manufacture of leather belts for apparel which are customarily produced in varying colors, it has herefore been impossible to apply the same coloring to the bore of the buckle holes in the belt to match the color of the belt itself. These belts are dyed prior to the punching of the holes for various reasons, but particularly in view of the fact that the holes must be located in the belt in accordance with the predetermined length of the belt as may be required to fit the size of the wearer. The raw leather appearing in the unused holes is considered to be highly undesirable and unsightly.
Many attempts have been made to apply a liquid dye to the bores of the punched holes and this has met with no success because the dye cannot be confined to the bore and it therefore creates an unsightly appearance around the outside of the belt area adjacent to the holes. Furthermore in the mass production of such belts this is a manual operation requiring several skilled operators and therefore not only impractical but quite expensive. Various types of machine operated wicking devices have been designed to eliminate the manual operation, but still with no success.